1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates a camera having a function of automatically taking a close-up of a person in portrait mode photographing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, there has been developed an electronic still camera system wherein an image pickup device such as a solid state image sensing device or an image pickup tube is combined with a recording device using a magnetic disc which is inexpensive as a recording medium and yet has a comparative high memory capacity. A subject is still-photographed electronically and recorded into a rotating magnetic disc, and the reproduction of an image is carried out by a television, a printer or the like, which are provided separately.
Now, it has been found the following disadvantage in the electronic still camera of the type described because of the construction thereof. Namely, in the electronic still camera, the degree of integration of the charge coupled device (CCD) for image-sensing a subject is still low even with the current technique of forming the integrated circuits, and the resolution of the image is unsatisfactory. Since reproduction of the sensed image is performed through a television (hereinafter referred briefly to as "TV"), the resolution of the image renders great influences to the number of picture elements and the number of scanning lines of the TV screen. Because of this, in photographing by use of the electronic still camera, it is necessary to pay sufficient consideration to the size of the subject as will be described hereunder.
In general, when photographing a portrait the rate of a face which occupies a space in the photographic background develops the following tendency. More specifically, FIG. 5 shows a photo print, in which L indicates the longitudinal dimension of the photo print and H the size of a face, respectively. FIG. 6 is a chart, wherein a rate H/L, at which the face occupies a space in a photo print in general is given as an abscissa and a frequency, at which the rates H/L occur, is given as an ordinate. As apparent from the drawing, in general, amateur cameramen tend to photograph a person as a whole. As a result, the highest frequency occurs when the abscissa H/L is about 0.1. However, at the time of photographic printing, a silver salt film of fine grain structure is used as a recording medium, so that an image printed on photographic printing paper is good in resolution and sharply taken, thus presenting no problem.
In contrast thereto, in a method of reproducing a sensed image on a TV screen, e.g. TV broadcasting, the following contrivance in photographing is made. FIG. 7 shows an ordinary TV screen. In the drawing, L indicates the size of screen in the longitudinal direction, and H the size of a face, respectively. FIG. 8 is a chart, wherein the ratio H/L, at which a face of an image of a person delivered from a TV broadcasting station occupies a space in the TV screen shown in FIG. 7, is given as an abscissa and a frequency, at which the rates H/L occur, is given as an ordinate. The drawing shows that the highest frequency occurs when H/L is about 0.3. As described above, when the subject to be photographed is a person in a TV image of the TV broadcasting station, to improve the resolution of the sensed image and make the sensed image easy in looking at, it is found that the face portion is photographed and broadcasted so as to occupy about 30% of the TV screen.
As shown above, when the subject to be photographed is a person, if photographing is made by use of the electronic still camera with the feeling of photographing by a camera using an ordinary silver salt film, then, when the sensed image is reproduced on the TV screen so as to decrease the size of the photographed face, the resolution is lowered, thus presenting a problem that the face cannot be discriminated.
As a consequence, to photograph a person by use of an electronic still camera, it is desirable to use an electronic still camera having a function of automatically taking a close-up photograph.
Recently, a so-called TV photo system has been utilized, in which the subject photographed by a camera on a negative, a print or the like is recorded and stored in a magnetic disc for an electronic camera, which disc is reproduced by use of a reproducer as necessary, and displayed on a TV screen for enjoying.
Even with this system, since the person is displayed on the TV screen, it is necessary to take a close-up.
Further, with a film having a small number of picture elements, such as a 110 film and a disc film, it is preferable to take a close-up when a person is photographed.